Zach Parise and Ryan Suter of the Minnesota Wild pose for pictures on July 9, 2012, at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. (File photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

It seems as if everyone around it, involved in it or just following it remembers where they were they heard the news.

It was one of those moments in Minnesota sports history that you don't forget.

Zach Parise and Ryan Suter -- not one or the other, but both -- were coming to play for the Wild after agreeing to 13-year contracts worth $98 million apiece. The biggest free agents on the NHL market in 2012 were teaming up and heading to the State of Hockey. It was the marquee, game-changing signings the Wild had lacked since the franchise debuted in the 2000-01 season.

Wild owner Craig Leipold knew for sure that it was happening around 2 a.m. on July 3. With his family at their cottage in Wisconsin to celebrate the July 4 holiday, he was left in his St. Paul apartment to celebrate the big news with the family dogs.

Parise was at his agent's office in Toronto when he learned the deal was done. He hopped on the next flight to the Twin Cities.

When Wild coach Mike Yeo left the office the night before the deal, he knew it was a possibility, and he already was dreaming about line combinations and defensive pairings. The next morning, it became a reality.

Leipold says even now -- one year after the two biggest signings in Wild history became official -- fans tell him where they were when they heard the news.

His favorite story is of a father and son. The dad was on the dock of the family's lake house fishing when the son bolted out of the cottage.

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He called his father inside and pointed to the television, which was reporting the news.

"It's just one of those moments," Leipold said.

One year later, the two are the faces of the franchise, which made the playoffs for the first time in five years in 2013.

By many measures, it was a successful season. The expectation was for the Wild to make the playoffs, and they did. But while the team did improve statistically, it won just one playoff game -- and had to fight to the last day of the regular season just to make it.

That was hardly the fault of Suter and Parise. Suter led the NHL in minutes in both the regular season and the playoffs. Parise scored just one goal in the playoffs but he helped shut down the vaunted Blackhawks' top line.

"Statistically speaking, we improved in just about every category, and in some cases dramatically," Yeo said. "Puck possession, shots, shots against, just about every category improved. I don't want to say it's all because of them, because a lot of guys put in great deal of work, but having them was a real growth for us."

Because of the lockout, players had days, not weeks, to prepare together for the season, and Parise said it took some time out of the gate for everyone to feel comfortable with each other. It's one reason he's optimistic about the 2013-14 season, when the schedule and routines return to normal.

In their first season together, Suter was a first-team all-star and a finalist for the Norris Trophy given to the league's best defender, and Parise led the team in nearly every major offensive category, including goals, points and shots.

"They are as good as we thought they would be," Leipold said. "They gave us everything we hoped they would give us."

When Leipold got the news the deal was done -- remember, it was at 2 a.m. -- he called Wild chief financial officer Jeff Pellegrom and told him the situation.

Leipold and Pellegrom met the following morning to create a budget with estimations for what signing Suter and Parise would mean for ticket sales, merchandise sales and sponsorships.

"We had to be aggressive in our forecasting to make numbers work," Leipold said. "We thought we might have been too aggressive, but as it turns out we were fine."

In the end, the Wild lost money on the season, but that was because of the lockout. If the numbers held true for a full season, they would have "blown away" their projections, Leipold said.

"We feel the excitement is still out there, and it's obvious that it is because of the excitement of our fans," he said.

The Wild introduced their new duo to the Twin Cities on July 4, 2012.

There was plenty of stress within the organization leading up the signings. For much of the negotiations, the Wild were aiming to get Parise or Suter. But to get Parise and Suter?

"It never even occurred to me," Leipold said.

For Parise, it was a homecoming. He was born in Minneapolis, played hockey at Shattuck-St. Mary's prep school in Faribault and the University of North Dakota and still lives in Orono.

After he signed with the Wild, Parise said it seemed like every time he went out in public, fans stopped him for an autograph or to talk. Several times, fans picked up the tab when he was out for dinner with his wife.

And the State of Hockey certainly was familiar territory to Suter. His wife is from Bloomington. And he grew up not so far away, in Madison, Wis., and played hockey at the University of Wisconsin.

"He had a good idea of what to expect here," Parise said.

Parise is spending most of this summer in Orono. He has begun skating again and is fishing in his free time. He even has attended a few Twins games.

After the craziness of last year -- he played in the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals with the New Jersey Devils, signed his almost-$100-million deal with the Wild, got married at the end of July and then sat through the lockout -- he's enjoying time away from it all.

"I'm glad I don't have to do it all over again," he said. "But it was a lot of fun. My agents did a really good job of preparing me for it. But it was just stressful trying to find out where I was going to play the rest of my career."

Before free agency last summer, he spoke with Suter about what it would be like to play together. He envisioned it again when the contracts became official. But actually getting on the ice with the man with whom he signed an identical, multi-million-dollar contract ... well, that has been even better than he expected.

"I already knew that Suter was a good player," Parise said. "But once you get a chance to play with him, you appreciate how good he is and everything he does. We're lucky to have him."